Strip by Thomas Perry (Otto Penzler Books)

An aging but formidable strip club owner, Claudiu Manco” Kapak, has been robbed by a masked gunman as he placed his cash receipts in a bank’s night-deposit box. Enraged, he sends his half-dozen security men out to find a suspect who is spending lots of cash and is new enough to Los Angeles not to know he was robbing a gangster. Their search leads them to Joe Carver, an innocent but hardly defenseless newcomer who evades capture and sets out to make Kapak wish he’d chosen someone else. Meanwhile, the real culprit, Jefferson Davis Falkins, and his new girlfriend Carrie seem to believe they’ve found a whole new profession: robbing Manco Kapak. Lieutenant Nick Slosser, the police detective in charge of the puzzling and increasingly violent case, has his own troubles, including worries about how he’s going to afford to send the oldest child of each of his two bigamous marriages to college without making their mothers suspicious. As this odd series of difficulties explodes into a triple killing, Carver finds himself in the middle of a brewing gang war over Kapak’s little empire, while Falkins and Carrie journey into territory more strange and violent than either had imagined.

Thomas Perry, noted for his sophisticated and humorous suspense novels, has written nearly twenty books, including seven featuring Jane Whitefield and The Butcher's Boy, which won an Edgar Award for Best First Novel.

Unrated Critic Reviews for Strip

Kirkus Reviews

Since Kapak is laundering money for the likes of drug lord Manuel Rogoso, he can’t afford to look weak enough to let the suspect skate, even if he’s decided that Carver isn’t the ski-masked man who hijacked him.

The New York Times

“You have spunk,” he says to Jordan, quoting Lou Grant’s famous line from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” “I hate spunk.”
Matt and Danny share the kind of unswerving loyalty viewers have come to expect from the creators of “The West Wing.” And those creators can expect viewers to become jus...

BC Books

Instead of going the network line, however, Jordan rehires Matt Albie (Matthew Perry) and Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford), two disgraced former writers that have had drug problems, to beef up the quality of Studio 60's programming.

The Washington Times

There is always a sardonic twist to Thomas Perry’s characters, and it is personified in Manco Kapak, a mid-level gangster who runs clubs and launders drug money yet professes a distaste for killing people.

Entertainment Weekly

Now that the frenzied hype/backlash cycle has passed, it's possible to watch Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Aaron Sorkin's failed dramatization of life at an SNL-style show, and see what could have, eventually, become a decent series.

Common Sense Media

Our star rating assesses the media's overall quality.Find out more
Parents need to know that this all-star ensemble drama from the creator of The West Wing explores thought-provoking, grown-up issues like censorship, office politics, ethics, and media bias -- topics that are worth dis...

Bookmarks Magazine

Shawna Seed
Critical Summary
Many critics commented that the plethora of characters and subplots might have undermined Strip’s power, but they all agreed that Perry’s talent in weaving together seemingly loose strands makes the book an unqualified success.

Spinetingler Magazine

Manco Kapak is the owner of a dance club and a couple of strip clubs, among other shady enterprises he runs, and he has been the victim of an armed robbery [the take being the cash receipts from his various enterprises].